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Rachel Lampert has been the Artistic Producing Director for Kitchen Theatre since 1997. In addition, she is a playwright, director and choreographer. For the Kitchen Theatre Main Stage she has written Precious Nonsense (2005), The Book Club (2004), Waltz (2001), Lampert Variations (2000); adaptations of Frankenstein (2002) and The Trial (2004). For family audiences her plays include Emmett & Hambone, A December Suite, The Sisters Fitzenstarts, A Christmas Carol and with collaborator Lesley Greene - Science Fair, Fools! Schmools!; this season they will be adding The Odyssey, Winter Tales and I Have A Song To Sing O! Her play, Bet You Can't Catch It? was commissioned by AIDSWORK of Tompkins County as part of an educational program for teens. The piece toured Central NY for three years. Her trip to China in 1997 to stage West Side Story resulted in her writing The Soup Comes Last, which was produced at the Kitchen and off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in Fall 2004. In addition to directing many plays at the Kitchen, she has directed and/or choreographed plays and musicals at Cal Rep, Arkansas Rep, Portland Stage Company, Public Theatre and Hawaii Opera Theatre. Lampert spent her early career in concert dance and founded a dance company in 1975 (Rachel Lampert & Dancers) that toured extensively throughout the US and in Europe for fifteen years. She is a 4-time recipient of NEA Choreography Fellowships, a CAP Individual Artist Grant and a SALT Award for Best Actress 2004. Her dance works have been in the repertories of numerous dance companies across the country and around the world. Raised in Brooklyn, she moved to Ithaca with her husband David in 1995. Rachel Lampert holds a BFA and MFA from New York University Tisch School For the Arts.